Python Trademark Status

[David]

On Sat, 26 Aug 2000 01:43:08 -0400, "Tim Peters" <tim_one at email.msn.com>
wrote:
>Note that CNRI didn't apply for a trademark, though, they applied for a
>service mark.  If we were lawyers, I bet we'd find that fascinating <wink>.

There is no substantial difference between a trademark and a service mark.
Trademarks deal with hard goods; service marks deal with services.  Both
receive the same legal protection and are, for all intents and purposes,
the same thing.
 
The important thing to understand is that trademarks are used to identify
and distinguish one's goods from another's.  The intention is to prevent
market confusion.  The owner of the trademark has the legal right to
protect his product name from use by competitors, or where the consumer may
be confused regarding ownership or promotion.  And the laws make it
relatively easy for the owner to do so.
 
Thus, you are not allowed to use the big yellow M arches for *any* product
or service, as doing so would imply to the typical consumer that McDonalds
corporation is the owner or affliate of the product or service.
 
You *are* allowed to use the name McDonalds for your auto repair shop, as
the consumer is unlikely to confuse your services with those of the fast
food franchise.  You are allowed to, that is, if you can afford to maintain
the lawsuit that McDonald's franchise will inevitably bring to bear against
you.
 
The risk in this case CNRI gaining service mark ownership of the name
"Python" for "information services, namely, providing computer programs,
news, links, and documentation relating to an object-oriented computer
programming language and its development environment."
 
If CNRI gets pissy, they'll be able to make Guido change the name of his
programming language.  They can't stop the Python community from publishing
books about Python, having websites about Python and so on -- but they can
stop the base product -- the programming language itself, which really
forms the core of the entire community -- from being used for anything but
CNRI's language product.
 
Now, this could be an opportunity to start from scratch.  Do Python 3000
immediately.  Make it so good that everyone wants to jump ship.  And write
a translator to make it easier to port old 1.5.x code to the new BDFL3000
language.
 
On the other hand, maybe CNRI doesn't have bad intentions and won't be
pissy.